Post on 14-Jun-2015
description
Top-Down e-Infrastructure Meets Bottom-Up Research Innovation
Fitting e-Social Science Visions to the Realities Eric Meyer & William Dutton
Oxford e-Social Science Node
of UK National Centre for eSocial Science
Presentation for the UK e-Science All Hands Meeting, 8-11 Sept 2008. Paper associated with this presentation available: Meyer, Eric T. and Dutton, William H., “Top-Down e-Infrastructure Meets Bottom-Up Research Innovation: Fitting e-Social Science Visions to the Realities " (Sept 1, 2008). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1262211
Certainty Trough or Experience Technology
Evidence for Uncertainty Trough
Opponents Disengaged Spectators Promoters
7.6 9.9 43.2 33.3
Certain 40.5 8.7 19.7 68.1 37.9
Marginal 27.0 30.4 33.7 23.5 29.1
Uncertain 32.4 60.9 46.6 8.4 33.0
100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
Uncertainty by Perspective (**)
Perspective
Total
Uncertainty
Total
Proportion of sample
Source: Dutton, W.H. & Meyer, E.T. (2008). “e-Social Science as an Experience Technology: Distance from, and Attitudes Toward, E-Research“. Presentation for the 4th International Conference on e-Social Science, University of Manchester, 19 June 2008. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1150422
Evidence for an Experience Technology
Disengaged Opponents Spectators Promoters
Low 71.7 62.2 43.8 6.5 34.4
Moderate 23.9 27.0 38.9 28.0 32.5
High 4.3 10.8 17.3 65.5 33.1
100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
Support
Total
Support by Perspective (**)
Perspective
Total
Source: Dutton, W.H. & Meyer, E.T. (2008). “e-Social Science as an Experience Technology: Distance from, and Attitudes Toward, E-Research“. Presentation for the 4th International Conference on e-Social Science, University of Manchester, 19 June 2008. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1150422
Sample
Source N Sent N RespondedResponse
Rate% of
sample
NCeSS List 615 141 22.9% 26.8%OII List 1761 180 10.2% 34.2%Open mailings n/a 205 n/a 39.0%Total 526 100.0%
Sample Characteristics
Bias of the Sample
Bias of the Sample
Year of Degree (%)
9.3 10.312.7
24.9
42.8
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Before 1970 Between 1971 and1980
Between 1981 and1990
Between 1991 and2000
After 2001
% o
f re
spo
nd
ents
Bias of the Sample
Country (%)
46.8
14.1
17.7
4.61.9
15.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
United Kingdom North America Europe Australia andNew Zealand
East Asia Global South
% o
f re
spo
nd
ents
Bias of the Sample
How would you describe your interest in e-Social Science initiatives? (%)
29.726.8
30.4
6.8 6.3
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Very interested Interested Somewhat interested Not interested at all Don't Know / Don'tAnswer
% o
f re
spo
nd
ents
Type of Research
Type of Research (%)
14.8%
42.4%
29.8%
12.9%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Quantitative Some mix of both Qualitative Other/None
% o
f re
spo
nd
ents
Mean 3.9s.d. 2.3Mode 4Range 0-12
Number of methods indicated
Research methods used, and interest in e-Research (n=526)
57% 56%55%
33%
25%
21%19% 18%
16%14%
3%
12%
59%58%
62%
59%
64%62% 62%
60% 60%
56%
73%
53%
62%
56%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Qualita
tive
Inte
rview
s
Desk r
esea
rch
Case
study
Surve
ys
Partic
ipant
Obs
erva
tion
Ethno
grap
hy
Histor
ical
Simula
tion
Exper
imen
ts
Form
al m
odell
ing
Web
met
rics
Clinica
l
Other
Research Methods
Pe
rcen
tag
e o
f re
sear
ch
ers
rep
ort
ing
usi
ng
res
ear
ch m
eth
od
Research methods used
Strong Interest in e-Research
Use of Data Sets
Mean overall research software tools used, based on use of tools in a given category of research software (n=526)
8.67
8.21 8.187.93 7.93 7.84
7.67
6.32
5.53
5.09
1.00
2.00
3.00
4.00
5.00
6.00
7.00
8.00
9.00
10.00
Webmetrics Geographic Visualizing Simulation ContentAnalysis
Integrating VideoAnalysis
Database Quantitative Qualitative
Software tool category
Mea
n
Researcher Clusters
Lone e-Researcher Team Player Qual Quant
User of research methods 0.47 0.34 0.74 0.18Both a user and developer 0.45 0.66 0.22 0.55Methodologist, developing methods 0.08 0.00 0.03 0.27
Quantitative 0.19 0.07 0.09 0.57Mix of quant and qual 0.66 0.86 0.18 0.04Qualitative 0.15 0.07 0.72 0.39
Never or rarely code apps 0.00 0.83 1.00 0.05Often or always code apps 1.00 0.17 0.00 0.95
Sole investigator on all or most projects 0.45 0.06 0.53 0.00Sole investigator on half of projects 0.42 0.07 0.23 0.00One of a team on most or all projects 0.13 0.87 0.23 1.00
Cluster
Clusters (%)
23.0
26.229.1
12.09.7
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Lone e-Researcher Team Player Quals Quants Don't Know / Don'tAnswer
% o
f re
spo
nd
ents
Types of Researchers
Clusters of types of researchers by research software tool use (n=526)
3.1
4.4
1.9
3.7
4.4
0.78
0.84
0.60
0.70
0.66
0.0
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
5.0
6.0
7.0
8.0
9.0
10.0
Lone e-Researchers(25.4%)
Team Players(29.0%)
Quals(32.3%)
Quants(13.3%)
Overall Sample
Clusters of Types of Researchers
Mea
n n
um
ber
of
too
ls u
sed
0.00
0.10
0.20
0.30
0.40
0.50
0.60
0.70
0.80
0.90
1.00
Lik
elih
oo
d o
f u
sin
g a
ny
soft
war
e to
ols
fo
r re
sear
ch
Number of tools Any tools
***
**
**
*
***
**
Types of Researchers
Perspective (%)
33.3
43.2
7.69.9
6.1
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Promoters Observers Opponents Disengaged Don't Know / Don'tAnswer
% o
f re
spo
nd
ents
Clusters of researcher perspectives by research software tool use (n=526)
3.1
1.8
2.82.7
4.4
0.77
0.66 0.65
0.60
0.66
0.0
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
5.0
6.0
7.0
8.0
9.0
10.0
Promoters(35.1%)
Observers(46.1%)
Opponents(8.1%)
Disengaged(10.6%)
Overall Sample
Clusters of Types of Researchers
Mea
n n
um
be
r o
f to
ols
us
ed
0.00
0.10
0.20
0.30
0.40
0.50
0.60
0.70
0.80
0.90
Lik
elih
oo
d o
f u
sin
g a
ny
so
ftw
are
to
ols
fo
r re
se
arc
h
Number of tools Any tools
***
***
***
Oxford e-Social Science (OeSS) Node of NCeSS
Oxford Internet InstituteUniversity of Oxford
Eric T. MeyerResearch Fellow
eric.meyer@oii.ox.ac.ukhttp://people.oii.ox.ac.uk/meyer
Willam H. DuttonProfessor and Director, OII
director@oii.ox.ac.uk http://people.oii.ox.ac.uk/dutton
Oxford e-Social Science Project